As many as 29 venture capital funds, including LICHFL Fund, on Monday settled with markets regulator Securities And Exchange Board of India (SEBI) a case of alleged violation of VCF norms after paying nearly Rs 2 crore towards settlement charges.
The settlements were made under SEBI's venture capital funds (VCF) settlement scheme, 2025, which was introduced to address compliance lapses related to the delayed liquidation of schemes registered under the erstwhile VCF norms, 1996.
The proceedings were related to certain VCF schemes that had not liquidated their investments within the stipulated tenure and continued to remain active beyond their expiry period, thereby violating regulatory provisions.
Under the settlement scheme, eligible VCF entities and their schemes were allowed to resolve enforcement proceedings.
According to the order, the markets watchdog received applications from 29 VCF entities that opted to settle the proceedings by paying settlement amounts, ranging between Rs 2 lakh and 9.5 lakh.
The entities included SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust, Canbank Venture Capital Fund, True North Fund IV, Karnataka Information Technology Ventures Capital Fund - 2, Tata Capital Special Situations Fund - Trust and Gujarat Information Technology Fund, among others.
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A total of 29 VCFs have availed the benefit of the scheme and remitted the specified settlement amount, as per the order.
"...it is hereby ordered that the proceedings that may be initiated for the prima facie violations... be settled qua the applicants (29 VCF entities) on the terms that SEBI shall not initiate any action against the said applicants for the defaults," Sebi's Whole Time Members Kamlesh Chandra Varshney and Amarjeet Singh said in the order.
However, the regulator clarified that it retains the right to take further action if any misrepresentation is discovered or if the VCF entities breach any terms of the settlement.
In July 2025, SEBI announced a scheme to aid the settlement of violations of winding-up provisions by migrated venture capital funds. The scheme concluded on Jan. 19, 2026.
SEBI had repealed the VCF Regulations after the notification of the Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) Regulations in May 2012.
Considering representations received from VCFs regarding difficulties faced in fully liquidating their investments during the tenure of their schemes and wind-up, the AIF regulations provided for migration of such VCFs to the AIF regime, and also prescribed the modalities for such migration.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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